Culture.ee’s weekly recommendations: 29 Oct – 4 Nov 2018

Kristi Kongi’s and Mari-Leen Kiipli’s duo exhibition “Secret Whistle in the Forest” is part of the architectural lighting design and light art festival Tartu Valgus | Tartu in Light satellite programme. The exhibition is inspired by light, shadow and the idea of blurring the boundaries between different life forms. Artists create a magical space where visitors can perceive life in itself, as a self-organized substantial network.

The International Modern Music Festival AFEKT 2018 will host the top composers and interpreters of the contemporary music. The living classic of modern music, Helmut Lachenmann, is in Estonia during the whole festival, giving public lectures, meeting with audiences at the pre-concert discussions and attending in public rehearsals and workshops with world-class interpreters. The other main guests of the festival include the British composer Rebecca Saunders and the great figure in German contemporary music, composer and conductor Enno Poppe who also conducts the Ensemble Resonanz from Hamburg at the final concert of the festival. You can also enjoy music by Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, violinist Eva-Christina Schönweiss, conductor Bas Wiegers, Arash Yazdani and Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, Ensemble Hashtag, NeoQuartet, sopranos Iris Oja and Kädy Plaas-Kala, cellist Leho Karin, and young musicians from Tallinn Music High School and Tartu H. Eller Music School.

Director: Matteo Garrone
Cast: Marcello Fonte, Edoardo Pesce, Nunzia Schiano
Marcello is a simple man, whose life revolves around his grooming salon for dogs and his daughter Sofia; Simone is a former boxer with violent ways just released from prison. After a long series of abuses, Marcello decides to help Simoncino in some robberies, but he ends up having to serve a year in prison. Once he leaves and realizes he is alone, Marcello decides to take revenge.
Winner of the Best Actor Award for Marcello Fonte in Cannes Film Festival 2018. Submitted to the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award by Italy.

Composer and guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel belongs to the jazz elite of Europe. The depth and intelligence in his music with contrasts between elegant landscapes of silence and technical fireworks are spectacular. In autumn 2018, a new record Where the River Goes is expected to release, where compositions are spiced up with juicy improvisations, which give freedom to all members of the band to interpret the music as they wish. At the new album presentation concerts, Muthspiel introduces two new members of his ensemble, trumpetist Matthieu Michel and pianist Colin Vallon. The guitar legend has chosen a dream union behind bass and drum, reputable US musicians Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard, who also play in Brad Mehldau Trio, their own group Fly and countless other ensembles.

Improtest is a concert series that brings improvisational music from Estonia and elsewhere to the audience. This time the performers are Isabelle Duthoit and Taavi Kerikmäe. Isabelle Duthoit is a professional clarinet player who started vocal experiments as an autodidact. Later, she has studied voice techniques at the Japan Noh and Bunraku theatres in Kyoto. Taavi Kerikmäe is a pianist and electronic musician. His music could be characterized as a musique concrète, which is performed live. Taavi is interested in the sound objects in their unique timbre and acoustic qualities.

To celebrate Halloween, some scary sounds from the movies is played by DJ NUXX. Free entry!

Whether you call it Halloween or Samhain or All Saints’ Eve or Allhallowtide, it is the time when the weather turns colder, nights darker and longer and it seems wiser to stay cozily indoors. Or hang out with others. As there’s safety in numbers and all kind of spirits and creatures are about and lurking and some of these may not mean well. Thus we propose to hang out in the most notorious haunted tower in Tallinn and watch retro horror movies together. We’ll be so much braver together; especially when someone knowledgeable is introducing the films which will be following: House on Haunted Hill (1959), Viy (1967), Nosferatu (1922) and Night of the Living Dead (1968).

The Kumu Art Film Festival (KuFF) is the first and only cultural event in Estonia to focus on the relationship between film and the visual arts. During the four days of KuFF, documentary, staged and experimental art and artist films will be screened in the Kumu auditorium. The film-makers are all connected with the visual arts in one way or another, and they reveal this relationship in their films. The programme of the third KuFF is centred around the new aspects in these relations introduced in the 1990s. As a part of its dialogue with the exhibition “The X Files”, KuFF is presenting Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian video art from that period. One of the subtopics of the film festival is the comparison of 1990s film and video art from Estonia and Europe with the developments in North America.

All Souls’ Day adds another, mysterious dimension to music. Mari Jürjens‘s music gives a deep insight into the human soul. Argo Vals‘s works are ethereal, groovy and full of constant search. He is attracted to the movement between different, sometimes opposing, sound chains, which have added a lot of colours and rhythm patterns to his sound in recent years. Alyona Movko‘s video art is adding a special atmosphere to his music. Taavi Tulev‘s ambient soundscapes with Alyona Movko’s visuals create a mysterious environment in the ancient sanctuary.

Audiovisual band Oopus consisting of Johannes Ahun (analogue synthesizers), Mari Meentalo (flute, bagpipe, jew’s harp, whistles, vocal and looper) and Aleksander Sprohgis (light and visuals) will arrive at Arensburg Lounge on November 2 to create a special environment for enjoying music, visuals and tasty food. Oopus’s work is characterized by instruments known from traditional music, live electronics and site-specific visuals. Their music can be classified as folktronica where psy, ambient, techno and traditional music will meet.